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Here is the second quarterly check-in for 2026 on what the signals are saying regarding After Capitalism. Perpetual competition, Swifties, and DUNAs (not Tuna) … Dig in! (See Q1 2026 here.) Drum roll please!
The Human Cost of Perpetual Competition: Capitalism as a Human Rights Issue
Capitalism reaps true benefits for only a small percentage of people while, by design, demanding continuous growth, efficiency, and market dominance to survive. This creates a cycle of perpetual competition in which corporations, governments, and individuals are locked into an escalating race with no defined finish line. This article investigates this cycle as a human rights concern.
AH Comment: I’m not sure that I want to pick up the human rights angle as a strategy, but the piece makes a good case for the pernicious impacts of our mania for competition. Everything is a competition. It is a systemic feature of capitalism that turns our social context into dog-eat-dog that works against cooperation. There is good news. Competition is at the core of modern values, and the values shifts enabling After Capitalism suggest that over the long-term, we are shifting away from competition and towards cooperation.
Why Taylor Swift fans can’t resist buying up 34 versions of The Life of a Showgirl
34 versions of the same album! A range of covers, colored vinyl, bonus tracks, and signed inserts turned one album into a collectable series rather than a single product. Apparently other artists, such as the Rolling Stones, have tried this before, but not at this scale. Pay attention class! Economists call this “versioning:” offering multiple versions of the same product so customers reveal how much they are willing to pay.
Yep, 34.
AH Comment: I am undoubtedly a stupid man for daring to question the Swifties! Actually, do I really need to comment? Does 34 versions not speak for itself?
DUNA: Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association” Act. Say what? The DUNA provides legal status for decentralized organizations and limited liability protections for their members and administrators. Three states have passed it. Wyoming (first) and Alabama and West Virginia. Not exactly tech hotbeds, but what do they have in common? Sorta decentralized, spread out, off-the-grid-ish types of places, where you might run experiments in how to organize differently. The direct connection is helping to enable decentralized governance that is essential to crypto’s future, and providing a legal structure that fits decentralized organizations.
AH Comment: Localization and decentralization are common principles for organizing the After Capitalism future. They are already big drivers. The excitement for blockchain, crypto, DAOs (distributed autonomous organizations) has quieted, but it’s good to keep our eyes on their potential for facilitating local, decentralized approaches. A small nudge in the direction of legal acceptance, hmm.
— Andy Hines
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